Recently it has become very popular to use different colors on the bodywork of vehicles, for example, having a black color on the roof of a car while the remainder of the bodywork of the car has a different color. The application of different colors requires two subsequent lacquering processes. In the first step a first lacquer layer is applied to the entire bodywork of the vehicle. The first lacquer has to dry before the second lacquer layer can be applied onto the first lacquer layer to provide an area of different color. This operation takes time and increases the production costs. Therefore, there is a need for other methods to apply different colors to the bodywork of a vehicle.
It has been suggested to use appropriately colored polymeric films that can be adhesively attached to the respective portions of the bodywork of a vehicle. Attaching such films onto the roof of the car creates the visual impression of a uniformly continuous area between the car windows. The film may have a high-gloss finish to provide the impression of a continuous glass surface.
When applying adhesive films to the roof of cars the films may be cut into the desired shape after their application to the roof. In such case the lacquer layer of the roof may be damaged by the cutting. When using pre-cut films the precise positioning of the pre-cut films on the car roof is difficult under manufacturing conditions, in particular, in view of typical manufacturing tolerances.
Therefore, it has been an object of the present invention to provide a cutting tool and a corresponding method of cutting an adhesive polymer film being pre-attached to a car roof essentially without damaging the car roof when cutting the film. It has been another object of the present invention to provide a cutting tool that is easy to handle and that can be easily adapted to different car models. It has been still another object of the present invention to provide a cutting tool and a corresponding cutting method that can be reliably used under manufacturing conditions at reasonable costs.